Lost admin access during importing list of new users and now cannot access Aggregate server

Support
1

Dear All,

I am in a critical situation. One of my project colleagues added a list of users to the Aggregate server by importing excel form and now we do not have any access to that server as this process resets the user passwords. Any suggestions in recovering the account will be highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Imran

2

Hi @A.N.M_AL-IMRAN! Most important thing to do is to not panic. This is most certainly recoverable.

Is the server on App Engine or Tomcat (and which DB)? If on App Engine, do you have access to the Google account that has owner privileges?

2 Likes
3

Dear Yaw,

Thanks so much for prompt response! This is on App Engine and yes I have access to the console.

Thanks,
Imran

4

Your best option here is to re-run the installer with the same version of Aggregate and specify a different super-user username. Then log in (password: aggregate) with that username, and either delete the older user or change its password.

If you want to keep the passwords from the other accounts valid, you'll need use the same instance name that you put in the installer. One quick way to get the instance name is to run

curl -v --silent https://myexample.appspot.com/ Aggregate.html 2>&1 | grep "WWW-Authenticate"`

You'll get something like this

< WWW-Authenticate: Digest realm="Example ODK Aggregate", qop="auth", nonce="1234ABCD".

The instance name in the above example is "Example"

5

Dear Yaw,

I know the instance name. However, cannot find the version of Aggregate. Is there any change to get that from Google console?

Thanks again,
Imran

6

Do you know roughly when the server was installed?

7

Dear Yaw,

I believe, around December 21, 2016.

Thanks,
Imran

8

It's probably Aggregate v1.4.12.

You can try following https://docs.opendatakit.org/aggregate-upgrade/#determining-your-aggregate-version to see if you can find the version.

If you can't, I'd opt for Aggregate v1.4.12 and see if that gets you back in. If you don't have a backup, it'd be wise to take one before going any further. https://docs.opendatakit.org/aggregate-backup has instructions.

1 Like
9

Dear Yaw,

You are right, it is v1.4.12. However, not sure, how to take backup without login credentials of Aggregate server.

Thanks again,
Imran

10

Doing a backup from GAE does not require Aggregate credentials, just App Engine credentials. More at https://docs.opendatakit.org/aggregate-backup/#backup-and-recovery-on-google-app-engine

1 Like
11

Dear Yaw,

Thanks so much almost there. Got back up and trying to re-install Aggregate v1.4.12. Unfortunately not going through, please see the error log:
Dec 21, 2018 1:23:16 PM java.util.prefs.WindowsPreferences
WARNING: Could not open/create prefs root node Software\JavaSoft\Prefs at root 0x80000002. Windows RegCreateKeyEx(...) returned error code 5.
Dec 21, 2018 1:23:31 PM com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AbstractServerConnection send1
WARNING: Error posting to URL: https://appengine.google.com/api/appversion/deploy?module=default&app_id=urc-malawi&version=1&
400 Bad Request
<ApiError 400, Message: "Java 7 applications are prevented from being deployed to Google App Engine from any version of the SDK, including older ones. If you need to continue to deploy Java 7 applications for compatibility reasons, you can request that your application be whitelisted for Java 7 deployment by visiting https://goo.gl/forms/qxeXfigRMccwAvoj1">
This is try #0
Dec 21, 2018 1:23:32 PM com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AbstractServerConnection send1
WARNING: Error posting to URL: https://appengine.google.com/api/appversion/deploy?module=default&app_id=urc-malawi&version=1&
400 Bad Request
<ApiError 400, Message: "Java 7 applications are prevented from being deployed to Google App Engine from any version of the SDK, including older ones. If you need to continue to deploy Java 7 applications for compatibility reasons, you can request that your application be whitelisted for Java 7 deployment by visiting https://goo.gl/forms/qxeXfigRMccwAvoj1">
This is try #1
Dec 21, 2018 1:23:33 PM com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AbstractServerConnection send1
WARNING: Error posting to URL: https://appengine.google.com/api/appversion/deploy?module=default&app_id=urc-malawi&version=1&
400 Bad Request
<ApiError 400, Message: "Java 7 applications are prevented from being deployed to Google App Engine from any version of the SDK, including older ones. If you need to continue to deploy Java 7 applications for compatibility reasons, you can request that your application be whitelisted for Java 7 deployment by visiting https://goo.gl/forms/qxeXfigRMccwAvoj1">
This is try #2
Dec 21, 2018 1:23:34 PM com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AbstractServerConnection send1
WARNING: Error posting to URL: https://appengine.google.com/api/appversion/deploy?module=default&app_id=urc-malawi&version=1&
400 Bad Request
<ApiError 400, Message: "Java 7 applications are prevented from being deployed to Google App Engine from any version of the SDK, including older ones. If you need to continue to deploy Java 7 applications for compatibility reasons, you can request that your application be whitelisted for Java 7 deployment by visiting https://goo.gl/forms/qxeXfigRMccwAvoj1">
This is try #3

Not sure, what should be the next step.

Thanks again,
Imran

12

The safest thing to do is to ask for a whitelisting.

If that's too much work, then you should be able to upgrade directly to the latest Aggregate, but the warning there is that we haven't tested that and I have no idea how it'll behave.

1 Like
13

Dear Yaw,

I already submitted a request for white-listing; however, unfortunately, haven't received any response from google.

Thanks,
Imran

14

Dear Yaw,

Upgrade to the latest version worked, without any issue. Thanks so much once again.

Imran